Howickia trilineata (Hutton)

Marshall, S. A., Luk, S. P. L. & Dong, H., 2014, A revision of the New Zealand species of Howickia Richards, Zootaxa 3887 (1), pp. 1-36 : 7

Howickia trilineata (Hutton)

( Figs. 9, 10 )

Apterina trilineata Hutton, 1901: 93 .

Howickia trilineata, Richards, 1951: 839 , 848; Harrison, 1959: 253 –254; Richards, 1973: 389, Marshall 1989: 603; Roháček et al., 2001, 149.

Description. Colour: Thorax and abdomen subshining black, sparsely microtrichose. Head orange with three narrow vertical silver strips on the frons: one running from ocelli to anterior margin and one at each edge of interfrontal area. Face entirely bare and shining, gena bare and shining posteriorly, vibrissal angle and anterior gena pruinose. Legs mostly brown with orange knees, fore tarsi white, other tarsi reddish brown.

Head: Interfrontal bristles in 3 small equal pairs. Orbital bristles minute or absent; orbital setulae present. Ocelli very small (absent in males according to Richards (1973)). Eye 2.0X genal height. Anterior genal bristle not enlarged, similar in size to genal setulae. Face tuberculate between antennae, concave at middle. Scape with a single conspicuously long bristle (longer than pedicel). Pedicel with several bristles along distal margin and with a large inclinate dorsal bristle. Arista with relatively long hairs, hairs at least twice as long as width of first aristomere.

Thorax: Scutum with single postpronotal, notopleural, supraalar, postalar and prescutellar dorsocentral bristles; postalar, dorsocentral and apical scutellar bristles subequal, basal scutellars shorter. Acrostichal setulae uniformly small. Scutellum microtrichose, 3.0X as wide as long. Anterior dorsal katepisternal bristle minute or absent, posterior dorsal bristle large. Fore femur swollen, twice as thick as mid femur. Mid tibia with strong, subequal paired proximal and distal dorsal bristles and with a smaller anterior bristle above large distal dorsal bristle; ventrally with only a long apical bristle. Hind tarsus with first two tarsomeres strongly swollen, together longer than distal three tarsomeres. Wing entirely absent; halter well developed, stem white, knob rounded, dark and uniformly microtrichose.

Abdomen capsule-like, syntergite 1+2 entirely separate from and slightly longer than tergite 3; tergites 1–5 dark, microtrichose and sparsely setulose. Sternites 1–5 similar in colour and dimension to tergites.

Female terminalia narrow, pale and telescoped into segment 6. The ovipositor was retracted on all specimens examined, and no specimens were dissected.

Type material and other material examined. Paratypes (2 females, one male, BMNH): New Zealand. Auckland, Howick (no date), Brown. The holotype female (Canterbury Museum, Christchurch, New Zealand) was not examined.

Additional material examined. New Zealand. Auckland, Lynfield, 15.May.1978, W. Kuschel (7 females, NZAC); Waipuna Reserve, near Waitomo, 28.Oct.1977, litter, B.M. May (1 female, NZAC), Lynfield, Tropicana Drive, 16.Aug.1975, in mixed mat of Oplismenus (a perennial grass), W. Kuschel (1 female, in alcohol, NZAC). No specimens were suitable for dissection.

Comments. Three paratypes (from Howick) were examined (by the first author) in the BMNH in 1989; one of these was a specimen found in the bottom of the unit tray and re-attached to an empty point bearing the type label, and one had no legs, head or bristles. The remounted specimen is the only male we have seen, and the details of its terminalia are obscured under dirt. The above description is based mostly on a series of females collected in Lynfield, not far from the type locality. Both Lynfield and Howick are suburbs in the city of Auckland. This is the only Howickia species with a halter and a bare face.

Figures

FIGURES 9 – 14. Howickia trilineata group, plate 2. Howickia trilineata (Hutton): 9, habitus; 10, head. Howickia nigrilegula Marshall, sp. n.: 11, habitus; 12, head. Howickia nigriventer Marshall, sp. n.: 13, habitus; 14, head.